Irritability: These 5 tips will help you calm down

Irritability affects our well-being and also puts a strain on our social environment. Here you can find out what causes irritable behavior can have and how you can counteract it.

When we are irritable, we react much more sensitively to social factors or environmental stimuli. We are often annoyed by noises or interpersonal interactions more quickly. The reason for this lies in our brain: We receive stimuli via the sensory organs, which are conducted to the brain by nerve fibers. The brain then has the task of processing the stimuli. However, if the nerves are overloaded with too many stimuli, we can react more irritably and sometimes aggressively.

Irritability: possible causes

The causes of irritability are many. Often it is due to persistent stress and resulting factors. These include for example:

• sleep disorders and fatigue
• Overwhelming
• exhaustion
• a headache

Possible environmental and social stimuli that can lead to irritability are amongst other things:

• certain weather conditions or changes in weather
• relationship problems
• heavy consumption of nicotine or coffee
• Hunger (for example with diets and malnutrition)
• Menstrual cycle hormone reversal (PMS)
• persistent noise

However, irritability can also hide serious illnesses. If it occurs along with other symptoms (such as anxiety, pain, or fatigue), it may be, for example first signs of depression act. If you feel that your irritable nature is affecting you more and more, you cannot get it under control yourself or that it occurs over a longer period of time together with other symptoms, you should therefore seek medical advice.

Tip against irritability: sleep hygiene

If stress is the main cause of your irritability, you should take a closer look at your sleep patterns. When we are stressed, we often suffer from sleep problems and as a result are tired and exhausted during the day. To prevent this, you can use the following tips to establish a fixed sleep routine:

• Make sure to go to bed and get up early at around the same time. In this way, your body gets used to the routine sleep behavior and does not have to adjust to new times again and again.
• We tend to work late into the night, especially in the home office or during an exam phase. If we then go to bed, our thoughts may still revolve around work, university or school for a long time and prevent us from falling asleep. To prevent this, set a specific time for each day to ring in your end of work. The time should be at least three to four hours before you go to bed.
• Spend your evening doing things that relax you and are fun. For example you can to go for a walk, read, cook or Board or card games play inside with your family or roommate.
• Avoid bright lights in the evening, especially screens. The blue light from laptops, televisions, smartphones and other devices inhibits the distribution of the Sleep hormone melatonin and so keeps us from sleeping.
• You can get more tips here: Evening routine: sleep better thanks to 12 tips on sleep hygiene.

Mindfulness for more serenity

Mindfulness means that we are more aware of moments in the here and now. Often we think of the next to-do list again in everyday life, rush from one appointment to another and rarely take a break to pause. Increased irritability is inevitable. Meditation, yoga and other mindfulness practices can help you to bring the thought carousel to a standstill and to approach your everyday life with more serenity. You can find inspiration here:

• Mindfulness: The difficulty of being in the here and now
• Mindfulness: 3 recommended meditation apps
• Learning meditation: tips for beginners
• Guided Meditation: These are the Benefits
• Yoga for beginners – these tips will get you started

Relaxation exercises against irritability

Exercises and practices that promote relaxation can also prevent and counteract irritability. These include, for example, breathing exercises, massages or specific psychological methods such as autogenic training. You can find more hints and instructions in these articles:

• Relaxation exercises: These techniques slow down
• Breathing exercises: you should know these exercises
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PME): This is how the method works
• Autogenic training: effect, areas of application and exercises
• Back massage: tips and tricks for a relaxing massage

Healthy food, herbs and teas

A healthy and balanced nutrition promotes your well-being, provides you with all the important nutrients and prevents complaints such as Flatulence or Bloating in front. This makes it an important component in counteracting irritability. Also, make sure you allow yourself enough time and rest to prepare and eat your meals. This also helps you to be more mindful in everyday life and to pause. You can get more information on this topic here: Eating Intuitively: How to Become More Mindful of Eating.

Also a Calming tea from medicinal herbs can promote serenity and relaxation. For example, read:

• Valerian: effects and side effects of the natural sedative
• St. John’s wort and its effects – you should know that
• Lavender tea: effect and how to make it yourself
• Melissa tea: effect, use and recipe to make yourself

Exercise against irritability

After all, physical activity also helps clear your head, let your thoughts wander and thus prevent irritability. For this it is important that you find a sport that you enjoy and that you look forward to. You can get tips here: Doing sport: How to find the right sport.

Read more on Techzle.com:

• Exercise patience: tips for more serenity
• Overstrained: 6 tips that will help
• Resilience: This is how you train your emotional resilience